A Study Of Cai Youmei, A Banner Writer And Writer In The Late Qing Dynasty And The Early Republic Of China

Cai Youmei(1872-1921),formerly known as Cai Songling,also called Youmei,pseudonym of Sungong,also called"Song You Mei","Lao Mei","Mei Dui",“Yi Wo”and"Bu Sheng",a person of the Han Army of the Eight Banners,was a well-known novelist and newspaper writer in Beijing during the era of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.There are over 100 works of his in existence.The novel Xiao E(《小额》)and the series of novels Fresh Taste(《新鲜滋味》)is the most famous.This article aims to conduct an in-depth and systematic study of Cai Youmei,his novels,and the creation of current commentaries,and is divided into four chapters.Chapter 1 analyzes the motivation of Cai Youmei’s novel creation with the background of late Qing Dynasty and early Republican era.Cai Youmei’s novel creation is closely related to the rise of modern daily novels.As the form and carrier of his novel creation,daily novels have exerted an important influence on both the theme and style of Cai Youmei’s novel works,which is an important motive for his novel creation.At the same time,the serialized mode of daily novels gave birth to the formation of the first group of professional writers in modern times,and this new type of identity was also an important internal factor for Cai Youmei to maintain her vigorous creative momentum.Out of the inspiration of the Banner person’s identity and concern for the banner people’s living situation,Cai Youmei’s novels show a distinctive banner people writing characteristic,but this characteristic is also mixed with a kind of cultural reflection,which is also an inner motivation for Cai Youmei’s novels.Chapter 2 analyzes the"Gengzi Incident"in Cai Youmei’s novels.Cai Youmei’s novels reflecting the Gengzi Incident mainly include The FiveMen Brotherhood(《五人义》)and Wang Youdao(《王有道》).Through the portrayal of fallen bannermen in these novels,Cai Youmei examines the spiritual decline and cultural barrenness of the bannermen in this period as an audience.In the concept of fiction,Cai Youmei focuses on history as a bannerman novelist.Through the portrayal of the chaotic social status quo of the Gengzi period and the exposure of the shortcomings of the Eight Banners system,Cai Youme depicts the morbid carnival mentality that pervaded the entire society during this period.The third chapter is a study of Cai Youmei’s current affairs commentary.Cai Youmei’s current affairs commentaries include Yi Shi Yu Tan(《益世余谭》)and Yi Shi Yu Mo(《益世余墨》),which can be divided into"Old and New Discussions","Moral Crisis","Current Situation of the Bannermen",and"Social Education".In terms of artistic characteristics,Cai Youmei is good at exposing social problems during the transition from the old to the new with humorous irony and witty language and art,thus giving his current affairs commentaries an ironic character of black humour.In response to the age-old dilemma of the collapse of rites and music in the Republican era,Cai Youmei consciously draws on the"Chun-Qiu writing method",presenting a characteristic of"historical writing".In addition,a large amount of first-hand information about Cai Youmei’s life,experiences and values is preserved in these commentaries,which helps to achieve the research objective of"knowing the world and going back to the origin".Some of the material in the commentary also echoes the storyline of the novels in the daily newspaper,which constitutes a kind of"intertextual"writing feature.Chapter 4 assesses the artistic characteristics of Cai Youmei’s fictions.Cai Youmei’s novel writing consciously inherits and exerts the principle of "truthfulness" and the "persuasion and punishment" function of historical biography literature,and there is "intertextuality" withcurrent news which embodies the distinctive "actual recording" aesthetic features.In the novel style,Cai Youmei follows the traditional commentary example,but with the help of the outstanding narrative talent and the language transformation of "transforming vulgarity into use,slang into text",his novels narrate in a certain degree which breaks through the commentary example "with plot as the center" restrictions.Cai Youmei’s novels are also based on the theme and language of the Beijing and banners cultural field,and thus have a mellow "Beijing" style.By drawing on the artistic techniques of comic dialogues such as "slamming" and "baggage",Cai Youmei’s fictional creations present a humorous feature of "extremely funny",while behind the "humorous" style of writing,there is a more satirical message about the defects of the society and a reflection on the culture of the Banners themselves.This duality of "humor" and "irony" has also provided important writing experience and cultural accumulation for the development of "Beijing Style" literature in later generations.